Total pages in book: 225
Estimated words: 218500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1093(@200wpm)___ 874(@250wpm)___ 728(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 218500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1093(@200wpm)___ 874(@250wpm)___ 728(@300wpm)
He doesn’t deserve it. I don’t know him, but I know if he did deserve it, he wouldn’t leave a question in her mind about how much he wants her. About how much he appreciates that she’s sticking by him.
People who don’t know me well think I’m ice-cold and unshakable.
People who know me well know I’ve got a few screws loose. I hide it pretty well otherwise. Yeah, takes a bit to rattle me but once you do… results aren’t pretty.
Me and most of my siblings are a little damaged. Rich and powerful prick of a father who clawed his way to the top through a blood bath, getting organized crime hooks embedded deep with an unstable drama queen retired supermodel of a mother who requires a whole lot of attention to keep her out of emotional spirals. My father sees what he wants, and he takes it. In life, in love. Flat out. Anyone who’s tried to steal from him has paid the price, either dished out by him or one of his kids.
We were raised by nannies under the critical eyes of busy parents who are fully focused on one another. They’ve got high standards and rules for their offspring that results in frustration from my siblings. I’m handled differently. Probably because I’m more damaged than most of my siblings. Thad excepted, though Thad is no longer anyone’s problem.
I’m probably as twisted as I am because of being abducted and held for ransom for two weeks by my child psychologist who played mind games with me as he spiraled even deeper into madness.
It was mere minutes before the deadline. No one was coming for me. He was melting down. I got my hands on his gun.
Though not sure that was all that cracked me, because why send a kid to a psychologist if he’s well-adjusted? They all say Thad was the psycho. Nobody says anything about me. They pretend everything is all right with me, except Grace, who is the youngest of the seven of us but who tries to mother us all.
I don’t trust people. I keep hookups unemotional. I don’t do emotions in general, because my default emotion is best served to make shitheads pay for their sins.
Tonight… after being a fly on the wall for that conversation and now watching this girl dance, foreign sensations have woken in me. Maybe they’re emotions.
I want to give this tight little brunette the hottest night of her life. What I’ll want after I give her that remains to be seen.
I get to the dance floor just as Shep is ready to walk the dick who’s got the nerve to touch her out of my club.
While dancing with my friends, I’m tapped on my shoulder. I turn to see a nice-looking blond-haired, man-bun wearing guy in dark jeans and a red button-down shirt smiling at me.
“You wanna dance?” he asks.
“Thanks, but I’m having a special night with my friends,” I reply.
I feel bad as the smile falls off his face, so I add, “You can dance with all of us for a song or two if you really wanna just dance.”
Alannah gives me the side-eye. Our friend Coraline sees her do this and her head jerks back slightly, her nose wrinkling. She’s giving Alannah a look like… what’s the side-eye about?
Cor knows I’m not the type to tease and lead someone on. Alannah is either giving me that look because she’s annoyed I’m inviting him to dance with us or because she thinks I should go for it. Probably the latter.
“Dance with us, man,” Jeff, another friend of ours invites.
He’s a lawyer at the firm Alannah works at, and he’s tall, built, dresses well, and presents himself as very metrosexual. He pings gaydar and leaves many unsure which way that cookie crumbles. If you ask, Jeffy will tell you he loves cookies in all forms. He loves to come out when we dance and it makes us feel safe because he’s big, strong, and protective.
He also swears that in addition to being into buff, attractive metrosexual men like himself, he especially loves curvy, dark-skinned high-maintenance girls a lot, too. He’s currently trying to get out of the friendzone with the curvy Black beauty Coraline, but whether he wants her for a night or a lot longer than that is a mystery we’ve debated. At length.
As far as Cor and Jeff go, she’s not having it and keeps telling us that although dating him could be a dream come true since she’s attracted to him, she’s sure Jeff is going to either realize he prefers men over women, or he’ll never settle down because he wants to keep helping himself to both. And she’s not only unwilling to share, she says she’s also completely unwilling to ruin their friendship.
While Jeffy knows Coraline’s stance, he told Alannah, me, and our married friend Maddie who is also out with us tonight, to “watch and see” him accomplish his goal with her. He swears he’ll wear her down eventually. He’s not giving anyone a clue as to whether he’s got real feelings or if it’s just a challenge to him as he’s definitely the competitive type, so we’re all trying to stay neutral on the issue.